Application tracing is one mechanism to understand and monitor an application. Tracing is a mechanism to collect data while the application executes. In some uses, application tracing may be used for monitoring the ongoing performance of an application. In other uses, application tracing may be used by a developer to understand an application, identify any problems, and improve the application.
In many computer languages and communities, some code may be distributed as modules, libraries, or other reusable components. These modules may be distributed as source code, intermediate code, executable code, or some other form, but may all share the characteristic that the modules may be reused by other programmers in many different applications.